I Secretly Love Taking Down Christmas

I love decorating for Christmas. I love the homemade decorations, the kids artwork, the things that we’ve picked up over the years the snow-themed everything (not so much the classic red and green) – but there’s something that I love even more.

I love putting the Christmas decorations away.

I love filling the boxes, carrying them down to the basement, with new things added and saying goodbye for another eleven months. There’s something so satisfying about tucking everything away, knowing that you’re going to forget about something bought new and finding a little surprise for yourself next year.

(tip: include a list of all the things you wanted to do this year but didn’t get the chance, so it’s right there in the decorations when you open them up in time for Christmas)

I love Christmas – but those decorations? They take over our home, and there’s something freeing, clean and simple about taking down the decorations in time for the new year.

For the last few days, the house has been filled with boxes of toys that need to be assembled, games that need to be played, and Lego that needs to be built. New toys, old toys. New things, old things. They all come together and create a special sort of mess that feels like a tornado I can’t control, to change it from cleaning five things, only to have a few more messes made.

There’s something special about getting back to routine. About getting rid of the advent calendar, of not having to think of elaborate funny positions for the elf, of taking six recycling bags of paper, wrap and toys to be donated to the garage – of getting rid of the pile of boxes that has been blocking the way to the laundry room filled with laundry on Christmas morning.

Starting new, starting fresh, and starting clean and waking up to a Christmas-clutter free house just in time for 2015? That excites the super-lame, organized me.

How about you? Does taking down Christmas make you as glee filled as me?